Zenaida Monsada named energy secretary

The Department of Energy (DOE) scored many firsts with the appointment of Zenaida Y. Monsada as energy secretary.

She is the first woman to take the helm of the department, the first to have risen from the ranks, and the first to have handled a wide array of subsectors at the same time before being promoted to the top post.

Monsada was sworn in by President Aquino III Friday at Malacañang Palace. Prior to her appointment, Monsada served as the DOE Officer-in-Charge since July 2015. Her formal appointment as secretary comes with signing authority for service contracts and policies, among other things, as she makes key decisions that set the direction for the department as well as the energy sector.

Concurrent with her OIC position, she was also the undersecretary for four frontline bureaus of the DOE, namely: The Electric Power Industry Management Bureau, Energy Resources Development Bureau, Oil Industry Management Bureau, and the Renewable Energy Management Bureau.

As part of the DOE, she is a member of various inter-agency/international committees and working groups representing the DOE such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (Phil.), Tripartite Council for Biofuels, Technical Committee on Petroleum Products and Additives (Chair), Harmonization of Vehicle Standards and Regulations, and the Partnership for Clean Air/Clean Air Asia Initiative, to name a few.

Monsada led the creation of the DOE’s national petroleum testing laboratory and the acquisition/operation of the mobile testing facility. She also facilitated the institutionalization of the multi-sectoral advocacy campaign on the downstream oil industry, and was part of the “Benchmarking of Biodiesel Fuel Standardization in East Asia” of the Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia.

“I am greatly honored to be given this task to lead the Department of Energy, which I’ve been serving for 36 years. The DOE will continue to do its part of serving the Filipino people beyond the needs for power but also for all other energy needs of the country, be it on fuels, renewable energy, and energy conservation, among others,” Monsada said.

Monsada is a graduate of BS Chemistry from the University of San Carlos, Cebu City. She also earned units in MS Chemistry from UP Diliman, and Master in Public Management from the Development Academy of the Philippines. She had professional studies in Petroleum Management at the Arthur D. Little Management Education Institute in Boston, USA, and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in Stavenger, Norway.